Skip to main content

Blog | Eric Hendel

Personal blog devoted to long-form book reviews and criticism.

Search This Blog

Home
About
Book Reviews
Publications

Home
About
Book Reviews
Publications

Home
About
Book Reviews
Publications

Showing posts from 2019

Posts

Arrival by Ted Chiang (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel December 31, 2019

First Contact Stories Literary Works +1 Reviews Short Fiction Anthologies Speculative Fiction

First Contact Stories Literary Works Reviews Short Fiction Anthologies Speculative Fiction

Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel November 18, 2019

Climate Fiction Cyberpunk Dystopias Reviews + Steampunk

Climate Fiction Cyberpunk Dystopias Reviews Steampunk

Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel October 31, 2019

Epic Fantasy Fantasy Feminist Works Literary Works + Reviews

Epic Fantasy Fantasy Feminist Works Literary Works Reviews

Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

Myst: The Book of Atrus by Rand and Robyn Miller with David Wingrove (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel September 25, 2019

Epic Fantasy Fantasy Multiverse Stories Reviews + Speculative Fiction

Epic Fantasy Fantasy Multiverse Stories Reviews Speculative Fiction

Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel August 30, 2019

Absurdism Contemporary Fantasy Fantasy Humor + Reviews

Absurdism Contemporary Fantasy Fantasy Humor Reviews

Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

Word Puppets by Mary Robinette Kowal (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel August 15, 2019

Contemporary Fantasy Fantasy Reviews Science Fiction + Short Fiction Anthologies

Contemporary Fantasy Fantasy Reviews Science Fiction Short Fiction Anthologies

Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

Waste Tide by Chen Qiufan (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel July 31, 2019

Climate Fiction Cyberpunk Dystopias Reviews + Translations

Climate Fiction Cyberpunk Dystopias Reviews Translations

Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

Alice Isn't Dead by Joseph Fink (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel July 19, 2019

Absurdism Dystopias Horror Mysteries + Reviews

Absurdism Dystopias Horror Mysteries Reviews

Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

Eric Hendel

Recently Popular Posts

Jumpnauts by Hao Jingfang (Review)

(Cover Designer: Kelli McAdams ) Jumpnauts is exactly the opposite of the sort of novel which I expected Hao Jingfang to write, initially in a bad way, but also ultimately in a good one. Hao's debut novel, Vagabonds , was an extraordinarily subtle work of science fiction. Taking the form of a slow-paced and contemplative narrative, that earlier book detailed the deceptively complex story of how two seemingly analogous characters from human settlements on Earth and Mars voyaged to one another's worlds, only to come away from the experience with wildly contradictory views not of the planets they have just visited, but instead their respective homes. Vagabonds represented a novel whose dense and intricate plot wove together the lives of multiple generations of individuals, all of whom struggled to navigate an enduring political and social conflict requiring they confront the weighty question of how utopian societies should define themselves. By contrast, Jumpnauts ...

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (Review)

(Cover Designer: Tyler Comrie ) Yoko Ogawa's 1994 novel The Memory Police is unusual in part for how subtle the book's premise is. First translated into English in 2019 by Stephen Snyder, The Memory Police is ostensibly the story of a woman living under the rule of a totalitarian police state. There is a focus in this novel not only on the dehumanizing consequences of living in a dictatorship, but also on the quiet acts of rebellion that can be far more significant than they may outwardly seem. However, what makes Ogawa's approach to this material most unique is that, despite certainly being a book about characters who struggle to survive under the rule of an Orwellian government, it's never entirely clear to the reader how the oppressive force in this novel operates. For that matter, even in spite of the very real dangers that Ogawa's characters face over the course of this text, it's never clear to the reader whether or not this oppressive force which drive...

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green (Review)

(Cover Artist: Kaitlin Kall ) Despite having loved Hank Green's 2018 novel An Absolutely Remarkable Thing , I started the book's sequel, 2020's A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor , with a small degree of trepidation. As mysterious as the ending to the prior work was, I honestly never felt that the story required any further addition in order to be complete. It's true that the core mystery driving Green's absurdist take on the alien first-contact genre had not been resolved by An Absolutely Remarkable Thing's conclusion, but Green had in his own way successfully navigated that story to something that I think could be considered a viable ending. That is, Green's framing narrative regarding the arrival of alien life on Earth had come to a close when the "Carls" (ten-foot tall immobile robot statues that appeared one morning in every major city on Earth) vanished just as quickly as they had come. Moreover, the personal arc of the pr...

Archive

2025 2
- June 2025 1
- February 2025 1

2024 8
2023 7
2022 3
2021 4
2020 10
2019 8

Show more Show less

Labels

Science Fiction18
Dystopias17
Absurdism11
Literary Works10
Multiverse Stories10
Speculative Fiction10
Space Opera8
Fantasy7
Feminist Works7
Humor6

Climate Fiction5
Novellas5
Translations5
Young Adult5
Cyberpunk4
Magic Realism4
Horror3
Mysteries3
Short Fiction Anthologies3

Show more Show less

Follow Options

Mastodon
Bluesky
RSS Feed

Report Abuse

Powered by Blogger